Easily compare Akamai and Tencent Cloud for POP locations, products, pricing, features & support. We hope this helps you better understand the similarities and differences between these content delivery networks.
Company
| Company | Akamai | Tencent Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Short profile | Akamai is one of the oldest CDNs and generally considered to be the largest global CDN. They have 'servers everywhere' and a wide range of products and services. The company is actively involved in Let's Encrypt and is pushing HTTP/2 adoption. | Tencent Cloud is a leading global CDN that has resources distributed in 50+ countries and the highest service volume of all CDNs in Asia. It has a massive network with 1,100+ nodes in mainland China, extending beyond major ISPs to more than a dozen local providers. |
Products
| Product | Akamai | Tencent Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | Dynamic Site Accelerator | ECDN (Enterprise CDN) |
| Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) | Ion | CDN |
| Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) | Download Delivery | CDN |
| Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? | Adaptive Media Delivery | LVB (Live Video Broadcast ) |
| Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | VOD | |
| Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Image & Video Manager | |
| DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | Edge DNS | DNSpod |
| WAFWeb Application Firewall | Web Application Protector | WAF |
| Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | Kona DDoS Defender |
Anti-DDoS Advanced
Anti-DDoS Pro also available
|
| Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | ||
| Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | EdgeWorkers | Serverless Cloud Function |
Network
How many POP locations do Akamai and Tencent Cloud have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Akamai | Tencent Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| North America | ? | 7 |
| Latin America | ? | 2 |
| Europe | ? | 6 |
| Russia & CIS | ? | 1 |
| Asia excl. China | ? | 21 |
| China | ? | 1100 |
| Oceania | ? | 1 |
| Middle East | ? | 4 |
| Africa | ? | 1 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | Akamai | Tencent Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | 12 months | None |
| Minimum monthly costs | Unknown | None |
| Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests | Unknown | None |
| Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred | Unknown | None |
| NA/EU traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.045 per GB |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.067 - $0.09 per GB (varies per region) |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.11 per GB |
Features
| Web acceleration | Akamai | Tencent Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | Can't sign up and get started. Must talk to sales. | Self-service, credit card required |
| Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | 5 minutes | |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
If you also use their Fast DNS for your domain | Use DNSPod for DNS |
| HTTP/2 | ||
| HTTP/3 | HTTP/3 announcement | |
| WebSockets | WebSockets docs | |
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | ||
| Compression Reduce file size for faster delivery |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge
Fetch compressed or uncompressed from origin (configurable)
|
| Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? | HTTP and HTTPS | HTTP, HTTPS, match protocol |
| Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? |
Can be IP address or hostname
Can be same host as in client-to-CDN requests
|
|
| Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP | Custom implementation by Tencent DevOps team | |
| Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | Virtual Waiting Room | |
| Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | Cloud Object Storage with free tier. Upload in the portal or via API | |
| Cache control - CDN caching | Full and granular control | |
| Cache control - client caching | Full and granular control | |
| Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
Serve stale if origin sends 5xx | |
| Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN |
5 minutes | |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all, purge by directory | |
| Analytics | Many metrics available in console and via API | |
| Log files | W3C formatted. Available for download in console and via API. Log roll period and delay depends on traffic volume. | |
| API | Purge, configuration, analytics, logs |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | Akamai | Tencent Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | ||
| Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate |
SNI. First 20 DV certs are free. Wildcard allowed
TrustAsia is the Certificate Authority
|
|
| Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN | SNI and free. Wildcard allowed. | |
| Token authentication | 4 types of token/URL signing available | |
| Geo blocking | Not self-service, support is needed | |
| Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | Based on Referrer or IP address | |
| Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | ||
| IP white/blacklisting | Console and API. Block/allow individual IPs and IP ranges |
Support
| Customer support | Akamai | Tencent Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Akamai techdocs | Good, extensive and public documentation |
| Humans | 24/7 support via the console. Multiple VIP support packages are available |